Petersen Regains Lead In SRVUSD Board Race

DANVILLE, CA — Michelle Petersen has regained a narrow lead over Jesse vanZee in the race to represent Area 1 on the San Ramon Valley Unified School District Board.

Initial election night returns showed Petersen, a former firefighter and Alamo Elementary School PTA president, leading by a narrow margin. By the end of Tuesday, vanZee, a healthcare executive and president of the Montair Elementary School Dads’ Club, was leading Petersen by just 23 votes.

The latest results, which were last updated Thursday at 3:48 p.m., show Petersen leading with 4,654 votes. vanZee counts 4,568, and Jerome Pandell, former chair of the SRVUSD Facilities Oversight & Advisory Committee, trails with 1,990 votes.

The latest tally includes only mail ballots received through Monday morning.

California law mandates that mail-in ballots postmarked by Nov. 8 and received by Nov. 15 must be counted.

The Contra Costa County Elections Office needs to verify signatures on mail-in and provisional ballots. The next updates are scheduled to arrive on Friday, and will be released weekly until the final certification on Friday, Dec. 2.

Petersen and vanZee disagreed on hot-button issues like parent involvement in the curriculum, particularly on issues like banning certain texts and education on race and gender. Petersen said in a September candidate forum that she feels the district should follow existing practices, and allow parents to opt out of certain books. vanZee said that there should be more parental involvement in curricula, and “would oppose any sort of teaching that teaches students they are oppressed or oppressors.”

The two candidates also differ on student mental health. vanZee has highlighted pandemic school closures as a major cause of suffering student mental health, and pledged to prevent future closures. Petersen said mental health problems stem from a variety of causes, and pledged to guarantee funding for mental health support.